Sweetie was just wicked, Hazel, and also very badly named. LOL. She once did that shriek at ear level when I was driving in a steel post beside her yard, using a big sledge hammer, and I hammered my finger, not the post - still have the scar to show for it! (Grrrr!) She injured me more than all my other dogs combined actually, at different times and in different ways. Wonder why I loved her at all really.

Barbara laid a couple of tracks for Jarrah while she was here and was very pleased with this second one she did seeing it was on freshly mowed grass. The scent of the grass is strong yet she tracked better.

Aren't the Tamarisks pretty when they flower? They say in gardening books that they are invasive, yet in 37 years none of those has self seeded or put up suckers.

Tamarisks are pretty, but they can be problematic because they tie up so much of the water resources and concentrate salt in their foliage. They need soaking rains for the seeds to germinate, though, which may be why they're not spreading very quickly, but they also propagate by runners. In the US there are huge extermination programs going on in areas where they've taken over the landscape around rivers and lakes...

__________________
"We are--each of us--dying; it's how we live in the meantime that makes the difference."

"It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived!"

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

The cattle dog smile is why my previous red girl got called(amongst her other nicknames) "Susie Smiley-face". Love my smiley dogs.
The other thing the breed has become renowned for, in the States particularly, is the cattle dog shriek. Thankfully I've only ever had one that did it, but she did it well. She'd wait till you were walking past her yard, then leap to shoulder height so she could shriek in your ear. The first time she did it she was in one of the back yards and I went tearing around to rescue her seeing I was convinced she must have had a leg trapped in the wire for sure.LOL.

Lots of invasive plants wouldn't be invasive here, Hazel. I'm starting to think that Lucerne trees may be a problem, but I can cut them down and feed them to the sheep, and I know we planted Sparaxi bulbs a long time ago and they thought they could take over the world. Got rid of them, and apparently Gazanias grow like weeds here too. Not so the Tamarisks though and the sheep love to nibble on them whenever they get a chance, the only thing I dislike about them is the amount of dead wood on them.
Barkingdog, you won't believe it but my speakers could be past their use by date, I think they died about 3 days ago. I can't view the video until I check them out. Oh, I could SEE the video, just not HEAR it. And maybe I don't want to. When I turn this off I will check all the wiring.
My sister said there have been lots of cattle dogs get tracking titles, DD, so no, she's not special. She's very switched on in that she notices everything new or different in her surroundings, but interesting for me to see her use her nose. My first ACD girl was out of a bitch that became an Australian Obedience Ch, so of course that one had to track, and yes, her daughter had a great nose. I always smile when I recall her reaction when my mother, whom she adored, sent me a crocheted cover for my lounge. Snoopy caught her scent and went back and forth along it, wagging her tail , and smiling, you'd swear mum was actually here. Then there was BJ who didn't want to retrieve a tennis ball, who didn't want to retrieve half a tennis ball, she wanted to retrieve little bits about half the size of your little finger nail. LOL. Chewed off bits. Of course they got lost in the grass but obviously she loved tracking the scent, then she'd come to where I was sitting and place it very carefully on my knee. I do miss her and her little quirks.

Lots of invasive plants wouldn't be invasive here, Hazel. I'm starting to think that Lucerne trees may be a problem, but I can cut them down and feed them to the sheep, and I know we planted Sparaxi bulbs a long time ago and they thought they could take over the world. Got rid of them, and apparently Gazanias grow like weeds here too. Not so the Tamarisks though and the sheep love to nibble on them whenever they get a chance, the only thing I dislike about them is the amount of dead wood on them.
Barkingdog, you won't believe it but my speakers could be past their use by date, I think they died about 3 days ago. I can't view the video until I check them out. Oh, I could SEE the video, just not HEAR it. And maybe I don't want to. When I turn this off I will check all the wiring.
My sister said there have been lots of cattle dogs get tracking titles, DD, so no, she's not special. She's very switched on in that she notices everything new or different in her surroundings, but interesting for me to see her use her nose. My first ACD girl was out of a bitch that became an Australian Obedience Ch, so of course that one had to track, and yes, her daughter had a great nose. I always smile when I recall her reaction when my mother, whom she adored, sent me a crocheted cover for my lounge. Snoopy caught her scent and went back and forth along it, wagging her tail , and smiling, you'd swear mum was actually here. Then there was BJ who didn't want to retrieve a tennis ball, who didn't want to retrieve half a tennis ball, she wanted to retrieve little bits about half the size of your little finger nail. LOL. Chewed off bits. Of course they got lost in the grass but obviously she loved tracking the scent, then she'd come to where I was sitting and place it very carefully on my knee. I do miss her and her little quirks.

My dog came running into the room when he heard the dogs barking and he wanted to see them too.

I've gone from having one wannabe tracking dog to having four. LOL. Jarrah left some of the food behind and it's amazing how quickly the shelties got the general idea of tracking my steps. In this photo the dog at the rear, Dundee, is following my scent after where the track was stopped. A day old track too, clever little doggies. Jarrah's breed has changed, I'm now calling her a Snuffle hound. Bit like a Truffle hound but she's finding a reward for herself. She snores when asleep so is a bit of a noisy tracker too.

Obedience shuts down during the heat too. Good thing I started today, I know I have a month to get Jarrah behaving herself before we get a special visitor at the Club, namely Michael Tucker. Michael runs a dog training school and is the author of 5 dog training books. He stopped with us many years ago now so he could run a seminar locally and back then I had a trained dog, not like Jarrah today. I didn't know how much her previous owner had taught her, not much was the answer. No idea of the stand exercise, her heeling and sitting was reasonable considering the year she's been away from training. It was good though and I took photo's of the dog she partnered up with, for DD. We had to use each other's dogs as distractions when doing recalls. The Mal's name is Nikki, 5 months old. I got put into the puppy class while they worked out how much Jarrah knows. LOL.

GF, thanks for thinking of me! What a beautiful Mal. Aurelio is hoping for a black and white, but will take whatever colour comes along. I would have been very happy to see a pic of Jarrah too though. Hopefully she is an "advanced" puppy!

Trouble is I can't hold the dog and take the photo, and everyone else has dogs to hold too. Maybe when she can do stays, hey? Jarrah does seem to enjoy it, Hazel. She thought a bouncy little poodle cross might have been something worth chasing but I had to disallusion her. DD, I found the Mal to be very lightfooted and gentle, surprised me really. I'm always interested in other breeds. I was just thinking what solid balls of muscle ACDs can be, and certainly not lightfooted and , looking ahead, I hope Jarrah doesn't develope a recall like my Sweetie had. Sweetie would come so fast she'd have to skid to a halt. If Jarrah does that she'll probably not stop in time and bowl me .. ROFL.
Something just occured to me. I'd like to know where that woman got her Dobe pup with the docked tail now that docking is illegal here. Hmmmm! Nice to see another pup there though , a Cocker Spaniel, with its waggy bits.

Jarrah's obedience classes have been cancelled. Too bad, so sad, for her anyway as she did enjoy the outing and meeting other dogs. However, I did ask if the area was fully fenced before we started and was assured it was, only to find today that the big double gates are left wide open. Strike 2 was that there were totally out of control dogs that shouldn't have been off lead yet, one being the Staffie that growled at her last week, and Strike 3 is that you can't have your dog with you when enrolling, it has to be left tied to a post. (With a correction collar on, and dogs loose, disobeying their owners?? Err, NO!!) LOL. So, home we came. I will go on training her here, it was only ever to make her easy to live with anyway, not for trials.

It's very disappointing. The closest Club apart from this one is 100 miles away. My sister is so lucky living close to the City, she has a great choice of Clubs that are really serious about getting dogs to trial standard. This one here is too 'country' by far for my liking. I had hoped it would have improved.

Looks like Jarrah is having so much fun with the hose. Sorry to hear about the training classes, the classes that I did with Sasha would not let us socialize at all and all dogs must be on leash at all times. That is how it should be to keep any possible fighting down. IMO

That is what I was told it'd be like, Patti, but not the case. Seeing I didn't want tp be in the middle of a Staffie/ACD fight, best to keep her home with more pleasant dogs. My sister has concentrated on obedience for 30 or more years and tells them that she doesn't take hers to classes to socialise, only to train them. When trialling she wants the attention on her, not other dogs.